Introduction to Existential Phenomenology - AFSV00361

• Title: Introduction into Existential Phenomenology
• Guaranteed by: Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (21-UFAR)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2021
• Semester: summer
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:2/0, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (20)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Mgr. Daniil Koloskov, Ph.D.
• Class: A – Mezioborová nabídka VP: Filosofie, náboženství; Exchange - 08.1 Philosophy

Annotation

Last update: Mgr. Daniil Koloskov, Ph.D. (15.01.2021)

Description and Goals:
In this course, we will read and discuss such figures as M. Heidegger, J.-P. Sartre and M. Merleau-Ponty who are generally considered to be representing the existential “wing” of phenomenology. The course will pursue three main goals:
i. First, we will outline the common background of the early approaches of Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty explaining why it is possible to talk about the existential phenomenology in the first place. We will investigate their emphasis on ontology and corresponding existential accounts of selfhood, intersubjectivity and the world.
ii. Based on this, we will investigate the specifics of every approach emphasizing their differences and mutual criticisms. In particular, we will examine how Heidegger’s existential analytics of Dasein correlates to Sartre’s philosophy of mind and Merleau-Ponty’s bodily phenomenology.
iii. We will also investigate some perspectives that are opened up by the existential approach. This includes pragmatic readings of phenomenology and more recent advances in neuroscience.

Course completion requirements

Last update: Mgr. Daniil Koloskov, Ph.D. (15.01.2021)

Requirements:

Assessment comes from two parameters.

i.                 Participation (this includes preparation, involvement etc.) To be eligible for the grade, students should not be absent from the seminar more than three times over the semester.

ii.                A) Presentation on one of the texts from class reading

or

B) Written paper (5-7 pages) on one of the discussed or closely related topics.

 

Literature

Last update: Mgr. Daniil Koloskov, Ph.D. (17.03.2021)

All texts will be available on SIS

Primary:

M. Heidegger, Being and Time, (Trans. Joan Stambaugh), State University of New York Press

J.P. Sartre, Being and Nothingness (Trans. Hazel E. Barnes), Washington Square Press)

J.P. Sartre, Transcendence of the Ego (Trans. Andrew Brown), Hill and Wang 

M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (Trans. Donald Landes), (Routledge & Kegan Paul)

Secondary:

John Haugeland, Dasein Disclosed: John Haugeland’s Heidegger, ed. by Joseph Rouse, Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2013

Hubert L. Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World, The MIT Press Cambridge, 1990

Taylor Carman & Mark B. N. Hansen (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty. Cambridge University Press. 2006

Hubert L. Dreyfus, Mark A. Wrathall (eds.) A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism. Wiley Blackwell 2006

Christina Howells (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Sartre. Cambridge University Press 1992

Švec, Ondřej & Čapek, Jakub (eds.) Pragmatic Perspectives in Phenomenology, Routledge, London/New York 2017

David R. Cerbone, Understanding Phenomenology,  Routledge 2006

Alva Noe, Out of Our Heads, Hill & Wang 2010

Teaching methods

Last update: Mgr. Daniil Koloskov, Ph.D. (12.02.2021)

The course will take place every Tuesday at 15.50-17.30 using zoom on the regular address

https://cuni-cz.zoom.us/j/6527984737?pwd=eXJEMFJiTHJsTXY0UmtqbjZleFVjZz09

Syllabus

Last update: Mgr. Daniil Koloskov, Ph.D. (31.03.2021)

M. Heidegger (lectures 1-3)
1. Being-there. Heidegger’s Fundamental Ontology.

Reference texts:

i. Being and Time, §§1-6

ii. T. Carman "What is Fundamental Ontology?"

2. Being-with-Others and Being Lost in Others.

Reference texts: 

i. Being and Time, §§25-27 (secondary text: H. Dreyfus:

ii. H. Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World, Chapter 8, The Who of Everyday Dasein

3. Winning Oneself Back through Being-Toward-Death.

Reference texts:

i. Being and Time, §§ 40, 53

ii. T. Carman, Things fall apart: Heidegger on the Constancy and Finality of Death

J.-P. Sartre (lectures 4-6)

4. Phenomena of Being and Being of Phenomena: Sartre’s ontological argument.

Reference texts:

i. J. P. Sartre, Transcendence  of ego, pp. 1-12

ii. J. P. Sartre, Being and Nothingness, Introduction: chapters 1-5

5. Nothing but Consciousness: a Basic Sketch of Being-for-itself.

Reference texts:

i. Being and Nothingness, part 1, chapter 1

ii. P. Spade, Lectures on Sartre, pp. 80-93

6. Encountering Others

Reference texts:

i.  J. P. Sartre, Being and Nothingness, chapter 3.1.4, Look

ii. J.-P. Sartre, No Exit

M. Merleau-Ponty (lectures 7-9)

7. “Consciousness as a Project of the World:” Merleau-Ponty’s Turn to the Pre-Reflective World

Reference texts:

i.  M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, Foreword

ii. M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, Phenomenal Field

8.  Body as Existential Core of Being-in-the-World: Schneider’s Case

Reference texts:

i. Phenomenology of Perception, The Spatiality of One’s Own Body and Motility, pp. 112-145

ii. H. Dreyfus, Merleau-Ponty and Recent Cognitive Science

9.  Anonymity and Sharedness: Merleau-Pontian Account of Others

Reference texts:

i. Phenomenology of Perception, Other Selves and the Human World, pp. 403-425

ii. LAU Kwok-ying, Intersubjectivity and Phenomenology of the Other: Merleau-Ponty’s Contribution

Perspectives of Existential Phenomenology (lectures 10-11) 

10. Perspectives of Existential Phenomenology I: Pragmatic Readings

Reference texts:

i. M.  Wrathall, Making Sense of Human Existence: Heidegger on the Limits of Practical Familiarity

11. Perspectives of Existential Phenomenology II: Neuroscience.

Reference texts:

i. A. Noë, Out of Our Heads, The Paradox of Mind and Science, p. 42-46; Wide Minds, pp. 61-82